Reconciling a Budget Table with a Summary Total
A project budget table lists five line items: Personnel $48,000; Equipment $22,500; Travel $6,300; Software $9,200; and Contingency, which shows '10% of subtotal.' The printed grand total reads $94,750. A reviewer recomputes and gets a different number. The contingency row's footnote says '10% of Personnel + Equipment only.' The table also has a small note that Travel was revised down by $1,200 after the total was printed.
1. Recompute the correct grand total using the footnote.
Read the worked answer
Contingency = 10% × (48,000 + 22,500) = 10% × 70,500 = $7,050. Sum: 48,000 + 22,500 + 6,300 + 9,200 + 7,050 = $93,050. (If contingency were 10% of all four items, it would be $8,600 and the total $94,600 - neither matches the printed $94,750.)
2. What explains the gap between the correct total and the printed $94,750?
Read the worked answer
The printed total predates the $1,200 Travel reduction. Adding $1,200 back to $93,050 gives $94,250, still $500 off the printed figure. So the printed total is wrong for two reasons: it uses stale Travel and does not match the footnote's contingency basis. The reviewer should trust the recomputed $93,050 and flag the $500 unexplained difference for the preparer rather than force-fit the numbers.